New Battery Time

Well, it looks like its new battery time. I've almost finished wiring up my headlights and was doing some testing and the ol' exide doesn't seem to want to wake up from it's slumber. The load tester showed marginal on the voltage ~13V and under load showed weak. It wouldn't take a charge from my charger either, so I guess it's done for. </moment of silence>

Assuming that there's no value left on its warranty, depends on if I can argue with Kragen again. Since, I'll be installing a Bellview winch, I'm going to go with an AC Delco Voyager Deep Cycle if I can find it. Any thoughts and please don't say Optima. $150 for a battery ain't gonna happen. :evil:

I paid $105 for the red top in the Grand Cherokee. It failed after a year and had to be replaced (under warranty). I just don't think the Optimas are worth the extra coin, especially if I go with a yellow top.

I paid $105 for the red top in the Grand Cherokee. It failed after a year and had to be replaced (under warranty). I just don't think the Optimas are worth the extra coin, especially if I go with a yellow top.

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Can't really disagree with you Joel. My Optima also failed after about a year. Sears replaced it free without a hassle but the thought occurred to me at the time that I would've probably been just as well served with a lesser expensive battery.

Like I said in a forum elsewhere recently. It would seem that for every 20 or 30 or 50 people that like something and had good luck with it, one person didn't. Simple statistics, there's bound to be something go wrong for someone with something, especially mechanical devices...

I tend to put more weight on the community experience than just one or two bad ones. JMO.

FWIW, I did have one of my red tops fall onto the header (the one in my CJ-5 now) and melted a bit, it's still fine vs. a Sears bat. I had that came loose, slid into my fan on my Firebird and disintegrated, rapidly. YMMV.

It would seem that for every 20 or 30 or 50 people that like something and had good luck with it, one person didn't.

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The red top didn't stand up well against 3 year olds playing with the rear seat reading lamps. That being the case I'm not sure it would hold up well when winching. In any case, so far the second red top is holding up well, although it hasn't yet been subjected to a full discharge by 3 year olds.

I've got to locate my big bucket of receipts and dig through it for the battery replacement stub. IIRC, Betsy has used up about 48 Months of a 72 Month warranty on an Exide battery that replaced the previously warrantied Champion "Truck/SUV" battery that was 2 years old. If there's a significant value remaining, I'll probably end up with whatever Kragen offers in the right Group Size for a Starting/Deep Cycle. Hopefully, it's only around $50-$75 out of pocket.

In all fairness with my Optima experience, it's highly possible the key was left in the ACC position when parked. The ignition switch is so worn that the key can be pulled out in any position. Sometimes it falls out when driving. I invested in one of those battery disconnect switches when the replacement battery was installed. Working out good so far.

I'm not really upset with the first battery failing. Pepboy's did a good job handling the warranty and I was in and out of the store in about 5 mins with no arguments. If anything I'm being Dutch and don't see the value in paying $200 for a yellow top AGM battery vs a Lead-Acid alternative in a sub-$100 range.

FWIW, I used to be in pretty tight with a lot of electric vehicle converters.

When you buy batteries in bulk, as with anything, you tend to notice the bad ones sooner.

The optima YT/RT batteries are pretty good, overall. They put out lots of juice and resist a lot of vibration.

Not all installations are a perfect environment for a battery. If your alt/gen or charge regulator or what have you are bad, they'll kill a battery. Similarly, if you have a slow drain and jump start and expect the alternator to fully recharge the battery, that'll kill one too.

And building an electric drag rail that can run 1/4 mi in 8.8 secs at 140 mph can kill a battery as well. With fantastically spectacular results.

So, I guess what I'm saying is YMMV, but don't just blame it on the battery, especially if you're running a deep cycle in an SLA role, cuz that's a mismatched application. 8)

I may be in the market for one soon. The PO of my CJ fouled up the alternator wiring pretty badly and I'm wondering if it did a number on the battery. So far it's doing ok but AZ roasts batteries during the summer.

FWIW, I used to be in pretty tight with a lot of electric vehicle converters.

When you buy batteries in bulk, as with anything, you tend to notice the bad ones sooner.

The optima YT/RT batteries are pretty good, overall. They put out lots of juice and resist a lot of vibration.

Not all installations are a perfect environment for a battery. If your alt/gen or charge regulator or what have you are bad, they'll kill a battery. Similarly, if you have a slow drain and jump start and expect the alternator to fully recharge the battery, that'll kill one too.

And building an electric drag rail that can run 1/4 mi in 8.8 secs at 140 mph can kill a battery as well. With fantastically spectacular results.

So, I guess what I'm saying is YMMV, but don't just blame it on the battery, especially if you're running a deep cycle in an SLA role, cuz that's a mismatched application. 8)

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ah you just Yadda yaddaed over the best part........8.8 sec........could you post details?